New York prosecutors list specific criminal charges Trump may face after they get his tax returns
The Manhattan district attorney's office said in a court filing Monday that President Trump and his family company could face several criminal charges stemming from its ongoing investigation of the Trump Organization, listing insurance and criminal tax fraud, falsification of business records, and scheme to defraud. The filing, with the U.S. 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals, was careful not to accuse Trump or his business of any crimes, but it said public reports of wrongdoing justify District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr.'s subpoena for Trump's tax filings from Trump's accounting firm, Mazars USA.
Vance's office is squaring off against Trump in a long legal battle that has already gone to the Supreme Court, which ruled in Vance's favor. The high court dismissed Trump's argument that he has total immunity from prosecution, but it did allow Trump to seek to block the subpoena for his tax records on narrower grounds. U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero rejected Trump's revamped argument that Vance's request was too broad, and a 2nd Circuit appellate court panel is hearing oral arguments Friday.
"A mountainous record of criminal convictions and public allegations of misconduct, of which the court may take judicial notice, further confirms the reasonableness of the Mazars Subpoena's timeframe and its specific document requests," Carey Dunne, general counsel in Vance's office, wrote in Monday's filing. "Even if the grand jury were testing the truth of public allegations alone, such reports, taken together, fully justify the scope of the grand jury subpoena."
The public is unlikely to learn what's in Trump's closely guarded tax filings before Election Day, even if the appellate court allows Vance's office immediate access to the filings and the Supreme Court declines to weigh in again. The tax records would be examined by a grand jury, in proceedings guarded by secrecy rules, and they would become public only if submitted as evidence after Vance's office filed charges against Trump or his business.
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